Young, female TikTokers are utilizing their platform to talk about their experiences of misogyny in schools. Student Kirsten Williams exposed a class discussion in a TikTok posted July 15. The male-led conversation centered around non-consensual activity involving women. Many users have condemned the “disgusting” chat.
From Tumblr to TikTok, social media has historically been a safe space for students to vent about school. When Kirsten (@tank_on_e) posted a TikTok exposing this more sinister side of the classroom, her followers identified instantly with the issue. As the “only girl in a tech class,” the TikToker was noticeably sat out of a conversation among her male peers. Instead, she was secretly filming them.
Sufficed to say the content of this discussion was pretty graphic. One participant spoke about “(finding) one that doesn’t talk” in regards to sleeping with another woman.
As the conversation closed, one of the boys remarked that “every single one of us in this room is going to hell.”
TikTokers have been using their platform to take a stand
Shocked followers commented in support of Kirsten, encouraging her to stay safe. “Felt you were in danger while watching this,” said one TikTok user. “Not a single dude is speaking against it,” pointed out another. Other TikTokers responded directly to the video. ‘TikTok Grandma’ Mary Jo Laupp spoke openly about the “vile, disgusting conversation.”
“Ask me again why we don’t come forward,” she said. “If you could verbalize (that it was wrong)” she addressed to the boys, “then you should have stopped it!”
For better or worse, Kirsten isn’t the first young woman to expose this behavior on TikTok. On April 22, TikToker Millie Cooper (@.milliecooper) revealed a representative for her school made a YouTube video about the school dress code. In this video, the individual warns girls to wear long skirts. “If your skirts are too short,” she explained, “that’s going to tempt boys to say silly things.”
Millie captioned the video, “misogynistic school check.” It currently has over 55,000 likes.
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Student Madelyne Dukes (@madelynedukes) spoke about her own run-ins with a school dress code in a TikTok posted on May 19. Racking up over 600,000 likes, the TikToker exhibited each of the outfits she’d allegedly been “dress-coded” in. One of which was a cropped t-shirt and pants.
In June 2021, a ground-breaking list of British schools implicated in a harassment investigation was released by non-profit Everyone’s Invited. Almost 3,000 schools were featured. TikToker @itsjustmelek recorded her reaction to seeing her school on the list in real-time. The video has over 180,000 likes.
Kirsten hasn’t yet followed up on the initial video, but viewers are waiting with bated breath.
